TAMPA, Fla. — Brandon Drury sat in front of his locker, his body hunched over, his ears covered by headphones, his eyes fixed on an iPad loaded with his greatest hits. Soon, he’d be standing at third base in a meaningless spring training game for the Yankees. But the lack of consequence would not alter his preparation.

Drury stared at the screen. He absorbed images of himself gliding all over the field in his old Diamondbacks uniform, of the postseason home run that he belted off the Dodgers’ Brandon Morrow, of the hardest-hit balls he smoked during a season that should have featured more.

“I’m not watching mechanics,” Drury told The Athletic recently. “I’m just watching and visualizing and trying to put myself in the box. For the success I want that night, I’m trying to really get that feeling in my body.”

What Drury got instead was a hit followed by two groundouts and a weak pop-up. When he returned to this same spot in front of his...

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